The good news about 4K TVs is that just about every manufacturer is now jumping on the high dynamic range (HDR) bandwagon, which means a wider range of colors along with darker darks and brighter brights. The bad news is that even if it supports it, a budget TV can only do so much justice to HDR content. LG's ultra high-definition (UHD, or 4K) UH6100 series is very affordable, with the 49-inch 49UH6100 model we tested available for $549.99. It also is loaded with connected features thanks to LG's top-notch WebOS platform. It's a shame that contrast is poor, and color range is uneven.

Editors' Note: This review is based on testing performed on the LG 49UH6100, the 49-inch model in the series. Besides the screen size difference, the 43-inch $449.99 43UH6100 is identical in features, and we expect similar performance from this model.

Design

Looking like your typical budget TV, the 49UH6100 is plain and unassuming. The screen is surrounded by a 0.6-inch flat, glossy black plastic bezel with no distinguishing features aside from a small LG logo and a power LED in the middle of the bottom edge. The TV sits on two long, curved plastic feet that are almost completely black, with silver-colored strips on their tops.

An HDMI port and a USB port face left on the back panel. The other two HDMI ports, along with an Ethernet port, component video input, coaxial audio input, optical audio output, and an antenna/cable connector face directly back. Three HDMI ports are common for budget televisions, though four are preferable.

While the 49UH6100 uses WebOS like LG's higher-end TVs, you won't find a motion-sensing Magic Remote in the box. Instead, it comes with a much more conventional 6.7-inch black wand with flat rubber buttons. The remote control has all of the necessary controls for navigating WebOS on the TV, including a direction pad, a number pad, playback controls, and four color buttons. However, the direction pad consists of rectangular buttons that feel indistinguishable from the rest of the remote, making them difficult to find under your thumb without looking. The remote buttons are not backlit.

WebOS

Even without a Magic Remote and air mouse-like cursor control, the 49UH6100 offers plenty of smart features thanks to LG's WebOS. Many common streaming media apps are available, including Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and YouTube, along with support for live TV either over the air or with your cable or satellite box through the built-in TV guide.

WebOS also supports screen mirroring with Miracast and Intel Wi-Di, though Miracast support has been phased out in most current Android devices in favor of Google Cast, which isn't available here. There's also a web browser on the TV, though using it with the physical buttons is much more awkward than on other LG TVs with the Magic Remote for smoother cursor control.

Performance and HDR

Just because a TV can accept a high dynamic range (HDR) signal doesn't necessarily mean it can do it justice, and like many budget televisions, that's the case with the 49UH6100.

This is typical performance for budget-minded 4K TVs from major manufacturers—the similarly priced Sony XBR-49X800D shows similar contrast. Vizio's M-series is a bit more expensive, but its panel can get much brighter and darker for a far greater 40,670:1 contrast ratio.

Color doesn't fare much better. The chart above shows Rec.709 ideal color values as squares and measured color values as dots. While the TV shows an impressive reach for greens, its reds fall slightly short, and cyan and magenta are very skewed. LG provides a full suite of calibration tools to fix these problems, but out of the box the colors simply aren't very good. Curiously, we've seen the best performance in this price range from lesser-known manufacturers, like LeEco's Super 4x series displays remarkably wide and accurate colors out of the box, and it boasts four times the contrast at 4,938:1.

Viewing Experience

Despite measured issues with picture quality, HDR content still looks fairly vivid and eye-catching on the 49UH6100. The TV's strong range of greens makes the "Jungle" episode of BBC's Planet Earth II on Ultra HD Blu-ray appear natural and colorful. However, darker parts of scenes, like the fur of lemurs, suffer from the TV's poor black levels—though the hairs can be clearly discerned under sunlight, their fine texture becomes a muddy blob of darkness in shady shots. And while the greens are exceptionally rich and detailed, blues and reds don't exhibit quite as much vibrancy.

The Great Gatsby demonstrates the 49UH6100's weakness in dark scenes much more prominently. In the film's several dark settings, the characters' black suits disappear against the shadows of the backgrounds, showing very little texture or contour of the fabric. The white shirts and garden lights get satisfyingly bright to prevent the picture from looking too washed out, but anything very dark tends to simply vanish from a lack of deep black levels to provide more room for details in the shadows.

Input Lag and Power Consumption

Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a signal and the display updates. In the ISF Calibrated (Dark) picture mode, the 49UH6100 shows a poor 75.7ms input lag. However, the Game picture mode displays a far better 16.7ms input lag, at the expense of further skewing the TV's colors cool. This is good performance for any 4K TV.

Under normal viewing conditions, the 49UH6100 consumes 76 watts in ISF Expert (Bright) and other modes that push the backlight to full. The ISF Expert (Dark) picture mode cuts that down to 67 watts, slightly under the TV's power-saving APS picture mode. This is a bit lower than the Sony XBR-49X800D, which uses 89 watts.

Conclusions

The LG 49UH6100 sounds like a fantastic TV on paper, but it makes some major trade-offs in picture quality to hit its low price. While it's packed full of features, including LG's WebOS connected interface and support for HDR content, its poor black levels significantly hold it back, and its wider color gamut seems to only extend to greens.

If you want an HDR-capable 4K TV on a budget, the LeEco Super4 X series offers fantastic colors, while the Vizio M-series provides remarkable contrast for its price. If you want strong picture quality with both excellent contrast and a wide range of color, you should prepare to shell out significantly more on a high-end LED TV like LG's UH8500 series.

Other LG TVs

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level II-certified TV calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of all PCMag TV reviews....
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